Life After Death

Is there any life after death or death is ultimate? Death is surely ultimate but only for this world. In literal meaning, death in this world means the eternal life in the place where we all belong to. We humans do not belong to this place which is called earth we were created by ALLAH swt on arsh and our place should be jannat. But it depends on our amal that we earn hell or heaven.

When a person dies, his soul is transferred to another place called barzakh. This place is between earth and heavens i.e. a place in between. All the souls will reside there till the judgment day comes. The question which si point of confusion between muslims is that few believer that there will be nothing that the soul will experience when it will leave world while others believe that there will be treatment to the soul according to his amal. If a sinner dies he will experience azab and if a pious dies he will experience pleasure.

The point to be noted here is that the actual entry in heaven and hell will be experienced only when the final day will come, but even before that people will experience according to their deads. There are ahadith on this topic which support the azab after death surely this azab will be in barzakh.

There are some ignorant who think that all the pious men of ALLAH are alive in their graves and they do visit earth. This is an absurd claim which holds no grounds and the claim is nullified by Quran itself.
Al-Quran 39:042

“At the time of death, Allah takes full possession of the soul of the deceased, and also the souls of those who are asleep and not dead. He then holds back those for whom He has decreed death. He sends back the souls of others for an appointed time. In that, indeed, is a sign for a nation that ponders.”

Thus, the soul taken back can never return on earth again, if anyone claims that he saw a dead person’s soul, he is lying against Quran and ALLAH swt. thus one thing is clear that no soul will ever return to earth once died.

Now the question about the life in barzakh comes. So, for this scholars have extracted their findings and have concluded this;

Commentary of Aqeedah Tahawiyah English Translation 359-360
The ahadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that speak of the suffering of the people or their joys and their questioning by the two angels in the graves reach the level of Mutwatir. We must believe in them and believe that the things they say are true, and abstain from asking about their modalities. We have not seen anything like them in this life, and cannot therefore understand them with our reason. There is nothing in the Islamic texts that reason may consider to be impossible, although it does refer to matters that are difficult to comprehend. The soul will not be returned, for example to the body in the way we are aware of in this world. That will occur in a completely different way.

There are five types of relationship between spirit and the body..... (And no: 4 he mentioned)

The connection between them in Al Barzakh (between death and resurrection), Although spirit is separated from the body It is not the complete separation such that there is no longer any connection between them, as it is related that that the soul is returned to the body, any time a Muslim sends his greetings, It is also recorded that he hears their footsteps when the people walk away from him. This is special kind of returning to the body that does not imply that the body has any life in it before the day of resurrection....(end).

The Punishment of the grave is the same thing as the Punishment of al barzakh. Everyone who dies and is deserving of punishment receives his share of it, whether he is buried in a grave or not, If an Animal eats him, He is buried to a Crisp, scattered by a windstorm, Crucified, or drowns in a boat, the punishment of the spirit and a Body Reaches him in the same way that it reaches those in grave.

As for what is related concerning his sitting and differences concerning their chests, they must be understood from the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) in the way he meant them without exaggeration or understatement. His words cannot be interpreted in a manner that is not consistent with what he said. Neither should one minimize the words he said as part of guidance. Whenever that occurs, it usually leads to misguidance. One turns away from the truth that only Allah can know. In fact improper understanding of Allah and his Messenger is the source of all the heresies and misguidance that have cropped up in the history of Islam... (End).

Thus, there is life after death and there will be life with body one the day of resurrection. So, we should believe in what ALLAH swt has said and what HE has indicated for us.